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Although I returned the reply 21-25 minutes, this only relates to what may be termed specific warm up movements but in truth the warm up continues to include preparatory work for techniques to follow. This may extend the warm up another 30 minutes or more. But maybe the whole of the session is a warm up? (2 hours).

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."

Ours are pretty short, about 5-8 minutes of stretches and another 5-10 minutes of ukemi practice, or between 10-20 minutes total. Class is only 60 minutes long....I hope people warm up before class as well.

Our sessions are two hours long, but we get about an hour and a half of practive time between laying out and taking up our mats; not including this extra-activity activity, i'd say we take about fifteen minutes to warm up, and then ukemi practice. Then of course there's those days when I think "what the hell technique was I gonna do today?" and then somehow we might take a little longer to stretch out before starting class, hahaha.

this makes me wonder, is warming up/stretching needed for aikidoka?. One of my seniors said there's no need to warm up in aikido because every technique is stretching/warm up itself. but for me personally i prefer to do a stretching/warm up before we move on to aiki-taiso/ukemi exercise, because when i go straight to aiki-taiso i had a muscle cramp during the end of class.

PeterR, nope, I've used that check box myself after reading some of the spiritual essays and deciding my take on what aikido is differs greatly from what is meant by aikido by many other responders, so I accept their distinction.

PeterR, nope, I've used that check box myself after reading some of the spiritual essays and deciding my take on what aikido is differs greatly from what is meant by aikido by many other responders, so I accept their distinction.

PeterR, I'm sure you're the model of tact and diplomacy on e-budo (and how painful is being ganned likely to be? ).

I've heard that ganning came be excruciating - what they do in Singapore is for wimps. Note to self: use that spell checker.

Quote:

Yes, I warm up when doing whatever I dress up stupidly to do, but I wish I'd read the other responses first as I didn't add ukemi as part of the warm-up. Amazing how people's interpretations differ...

As I indicated in my post I'm not sure drills, including ukemi and the various undo, could be considered warm-up although they serve the same function. The drills really are skill development and often we will interject them between techniques just to get the blood racing a little bit. We want to stay warm for the randori at the end of class.

30 minutes of warm ups sounds very long, even for a two hour class. Personally, I'd rather have a two minute warm up, then 28 minutes of strength and conditioning training.

To be clear, a warm up is a routine used to prepare the body for work. Generally, this is done by increasing the body temperature with full body movements. This should not be a terribly difficult task, it should be something the individual can do. (For example, jogging or jumping rope)

For strength and conditioning training, I'm referring to a routine where some facet of athleticism would be increased. This will be a challenging activity, and it might be such that is the individual struggles to complete it. (Body weight exercises --- push ups, squats, yoga, pilates; Anaerobic/Aerobic conditioning --- high intensity intervals, etc....)

Do each movement for 30 seconds (each person can go as fast or as slow as want, but they must keep moving)

Warm up by:

1. jump rope (or hop in place)

2. jumping jacks

3. mountain climbers

4. squat thrusts

Ukemi/Tumbling Sequence (this is more of a drill to work on body mechanics...aikidoists don't need to be gymnasts....work from easy movements to harder movements....be continuous in movement, no pausing from one to another)

If I break it down I get about 5 min. of stretching (the strething is really more range of motion movement with a pause at the outer edge); 15 min. of undo; and 5-10 min. of ukemi depending on what I want to have them do that night.

Our classes our 1 1/2 hours so that leaves us with a full hour for technique practice.

Bronson

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."

I think our warmups are about 10 to 15 minutes long, depending upon who is teaching. Sometimes we do some ukemi afterwards. Warmups were a bit longer on the days when the sensei asked one of the students who does yoga to lead us in some yoga stretches and breathing excercises.

I usually do about 5 minutes or less of warm-ups, then maybe some rolls or something like shikko practice, as I did today. Also, I usually do several repetitions of the first technique as a "back stretch" without a fall since I think it helps to ease into moving with a partner without having to hit the mat right away.

However, at the end of class I take another 5 to 10 minutes for stretching. This is different from warm-ups as it is slow and relaxing. Warm-ups are much faster and designed to get the blood moving and the muscles warm. Although many dojos engage in it, I don't see much point in slow, meditative stretching at the beginning of class since that is actually a cool-down, not a warm-up. I save that for the end of class, and I find it makes a significant difference in how I feel the rest of the day. If I don't stretch after class, I get noticeably tight afterward, so whenever I am at a seminar or visiting another dojo, I normally take several minutes after class to stretch on my own. The best time and place for this is right on the mat since the muscles are still warm. Once they have chance to cool down and tighten up, it is much harder to stretch them back out again.

No, I generally sit in seiza and meditate. I also stretch throughout the day.

Not picking on you Tom - just in the mood and hopefully Jun will use this as next week's poll.

Besides a tenuous connection to Mu Aikido and Zen meditation are diametrically opposed - if not in goal in method. There was quite an ugly discussion here just recently about the relationship between Zen and Budo and I'm really not interested in going back there but I really wonder why anyone would come to an Aikido class to meditate. The privacy of your own home or a mediation class if you prefer is far more appropriate.

Mokuso, the short meditation before and at the end of class, really is more of a clearing of mind and preparation for class rather than meditation proper.

Warm-ups on the other hand are part of the Aikido class and why on earth anyone would put themselves above the group and pointedly do something else is beyond me.

I'm generally pretty laid back about class but I'd have something to say about it.

I'm with Peter on this one. Barring the existance of an injury or something similar that prevents you from doing certain motions, do what the class is doing.

Just my opinion though.

Bronson

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."

We do about five minutes of stretches and between five and fifteen minutes of drills and ukemi practice. At beginners' classes the instructors always say that this is not enough warmup and people should stretch before class. I usually stretch my feet, which otherwise cramp up.

Some of the senior people feel free to skip warmups. As a very junior student I wouldn't do this, but I also know from painful experience that if I don't warm up, I'll hurt myself. I don't know if it's the physical stretching or the mental centering or both.

Our full set of hitori waza is too many for an hour-long class unless they are taken at high speed; we usually do eight to ten of the twenty.

I was a guest at a dojo with a much more physical and high-energy style. They did far more warm-ups and stretches, and took them much faster. I wondered why, till we got to the techniques....

I like to warm up before stretching by walking a block or two then once in the dojo by doing small forward rolls in 8 directions. This warms me up in aikido movements while giving me an opportunity to do a checkin and feel how my body is doing, any aches, rough spots, etc. Then I stretch major muscle groups. In middle age I need to do these things.